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May 31, 2012

The topic of the demise of guys is being increasingly being discussed. If a prominant Christian leader, psychologist or sociologist was behind this data it would be dismissed by many as moralizing. However, the article on CNN's website entitled, "The Demise of Guys: How Video Games and Porn are Ruining a Generation," is from world-renowned Psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo is a professor emeritus at Stanford University.

Zimbardo believes the consequences of pornography and excessive gaming "is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment."

May 30, 2012

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus Christ

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever experienced in my four decades of youth ministry was to serve as a Pallbearer for the funeral of one of a 13-year-old boy in my youth group. Paul was the victim of repeated bullying by a large group of peers that tragically left Paul with the mistaken conclusion that his reality was too unbearable and he chose to end his own life. This happened nearly 30 years ago. Unfortunately, bullying has gotten much worse in the last ten years.

Right now the movie documentary Bully, along with several highly publicized cases involving tragic results because of bullying among teenagers, has created a heightened awareness of the frightening dynamic of this issue in our culture.

Working with adolescents, we regularly hear stories of young people who everyday have to deal with being bullied. Everyday, hundreds of thousands of young people have to deal with the fear of attending school where they know they will be bullied. It’s estimated that an average of more than 150,000 young people stay home from school everyday to avoid being bullied. Most of the time this occurs without parents being aware that it’s happening to their child.

Bullying involves acts of repetitive negative behavior of a person or persons toward another person or persons that is aggressive and intimidating in nature. Bullying can take the forms of emotional, verbal, and/or physical abuse. Bullying can be a one-on-one issue but most often it involves a collaborative group engaged in peer abuse directed at one or more individuals.

Research reveals that young people who are regularly bullied face an increased risk of mental health issues. Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, despair, helplessness, and suicidal thoughts prevail among those who are dealing with being perpetually bullied. In addition to thinking about harming themselves, some begin to fanaticize about hurting their tormenters. According to a report by the Secret Service, two-thirds of students who participated in school shootings were victims of bullying at school that had reached the level of self-described “torment.”

Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide."

In addition to aggressive and physical actions that intimidate and harm the victims of bullying there are new forms of bullying that have emerged through social media. This type of Cyber-bullying attempts to socially isolate the victim by spreading rumors, name calling, threatening, criticizing, manipulating, ostracizing, etc. through a variety of social medias, including Facebook, Twitter, and whatever new social media tools emerged last week, along with those that will surface this week.

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, One in five teenagers are harassed regularly online. Almost one-half of all teenagers have experienced some form of online harassment. More than one-third (37%) of teens admit to using social networking sites to victimize and harass their peers.

Before we, as adults, rest in the idea that we have moved beyond the ability to bully, let me suggest that we may not engage in the overt bullying actions of adolescents but we must ask ourselves if we have not just adopted more sophisticated forms of bullying – gossip, character assassination, ostracizing, sabotaging, and exclusionary behavior toward others.

When Jesus was asked what it means to truly be his follower he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself” Luke 10:27. He then tells one of the best-known stories called the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to explain and explore the heart of what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ. In this parable Jesus commends the man who comes to the rescue and takes care of a victim of extreme bullying. We must stand up for those who are being bullied. Christians must speak up. We have to take action concerning this issue

What is Youthfront doing about this issue?

Teaching young people to treat all people with respect and the love, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Teaching young people the Golden Rule taught by Jesus, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Matthew 7:12

Teaching and mentoring young people the importance of defending and standing up for the marginalized victims of bullying.

What can parents do?

Talk to your kids about bullying.

Go see the movie Bully with your age appropriate kids.

Educate yourself on your kid’s world, their friends and the social environments they spend time in.

Be appropriately curious of your kid’s social media world.

I believe that we have a window of opportunity created by this movie Bully and the media’s attention on this issue to double down our effort to radically alter the reality of bullying in our culture. This, I believe is something that the followers of Jesus and God’s church must passionately engage in. We must do this for our kids.

May 26, 2012

Catie Madderom credits her years at Youthfront for teaching her the power of community. When you listen to her talk, you’ll hear her say that word “community” again and again as she describes her history with the ministry - and how it has impacted her spiritually. Take a look!

May 23, 2012

On June 27th, a little over 100 years and two months from the day the unsinkable Titanic sunk, Youthfront is hosting a special evening at the world renown Titanic exhibition in the historic Union Station. A reduced price for all of our guests is a real deal. In addition, the organizers are donating $5.00 of every ticket to benefit Youthfront's Something to Eat & Something to Drink initiatives. Come join us for an amazing night at Union Station.

May 22, 2012

Does anyone else find humor and a sense of justification, for the beauty of our national passtime, that the four teams with the highest salaries in baseball are on this fine day of May 22, 2012 all in last place?

May 16, 2012

I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Leslie Snyder's No Easy Answers: The Shared Role of Parents and the Church in the Spiritual Formation of Teens.

I first met Leslie Snyder in Seminary. I quickly labeled her as the fanatical advocate for parents who have kids in youth ministry. This turned out to be an accurate label. Leslie is passionate and deeply committed to help parents in our churches be more involved in the Christian Formation of their children.

Leslie eats, drinks, sleeps and dreams about ways to serve parents of young people. She insists that youth workers must be more aware of the family context of the young people they minister to. Leslie’s voice joins the growing chorus of voices articulating the importance of Christian Formation of young people needing the involvement of the entire church community. She describes ways that youth workers can become guides, facilitators, pastors and leaders for the movement toward creating a broader faith community engaged in passing the faith onto our emerging generations. For Leslie, investing in parents of teenagers is an essential aspect of nurturing a more holistic faith community for our youth to be spiritually developed.

Leslie gives youth workers practical ideas for helping parents of the youth you minister to and how this will broaden you ability to disciple them. One of the biggest challenges we face in the church today is to help our churches really live for and love Jesus, and for our congregations to be deeply committed to Christian formation. It’s no wonder our young people don’t take their faith serious when they haven’t seen this modeled by the adults in our churches. Leslie makes the case that we have to look at his issue holistically and in doing so we can make a difference.

*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.

May 15, 2012

Taize is a huge inspiration for what we are doing at Youthfront South. This summer I will make my fourth pilgrimage to Taize in France. I love taking friends to see what God's Spirit is up to, along with discussing what a North American expression of this might look like. This video is worth a watch.

May 14, 2012

We are a little over five weeks away for the start of Wild Goose Festival number two. I'm looking forward to David Crowder joining us, along with Gungor and tons of other great artists, poets, speakers, thinkers, provocateurs, theologians...

I'm so happy Over the Rhine is returning, along with Shane Claiborne, plus new speakers like Lauren Winner and Cathleen Falsani.

Until Thursday at midnight you can get a 15% discount on tickets using the code MIKEKING

May 04, 2012

We received confirmation last night that our container of food (approximately 280,000 meals) has arrived in Port Mombasa! This Something to Eat initiative to provide food for people suffering from the effects of starvation in the famine zone of the Horn of Africa was a demonstration of compassion by young people from Wichita, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Spokane, Washington; Tucson, Arizona and Palo Alto, California.

I have been speaking and thinking a lot lately on a theology of place, space and time. I believe a theologically robust and intentional focus on being rooted in a particular place for a long period of time is essential for nurturing a community engaged in Christian practice.

It seems like I'm saying things that which resonnnate deeply to people but seems challenging to embrace in our hyper-mobile culture.

This has become my argument;

STAY where you're from, if you haven't, STAY where you are, if you can't, at least live like you are staying where you are for the rest of your life.

Last week I had the privilege of giving two lectures at the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary and next week I will be speaking on this subject at the Children, Youth and New Kind of Christianity Conference in Washington, D.C.

It's not too late to register for the conference in Washington. Here are what a few people are saying about the conference;

“This event sets the bar high: it’s got passion, purpose, and a line-up of theological luminaries who rarely share the same stage. What brings it all together is a shared core conviction: if we’re going to be the church Christ calls us to be, we’re going to need to take young people as seriously as Jesus does.” -Kenda Creasy Dean, Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, Author of Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church

“What I like about [CYNKC] is that the fine folks throwing this party are trying to figure out how we approach spirituality with young people in a post-flannelgraph-Sunday-School world.” -Shane Claiborne, activist, author, and founding member of The Simple Way

“A new generation needs to emerge that has a passionate vision for making the Kingdom of God a reality in this world. Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity is a major attempt to foster that generation. It promises to give hope to a church and a world that need renewal.” -Tony Campolo, PhD, Eastern University, St. Davids , Pennsylvania